ROI in the Public Sector :: essays research papers

ROI in the Public Sector Interest in return on investment (ROI) by public sector organizations continues to grow. This interest is not isolated to large federal agencies. Myths regarding the use of ROI in government abound, prevents many agencies from developing a comprehensive approach to evaluating human resources, training, and performance improvement initiatives. The key is distinguishing what is myth versus what is reality. Efforts have been made toward more responsible performance management and measurement in the public sector. The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 was enacted to improve the management practices of the federal government and to ensure the production of reliable and timely financial information for use in managing and evaluating federal programs. The government Management Reform Act of 1994 added to the Chief Financial Officers Act by requiring all federal agencies to prepare and make public annual financial reports. It also authorized the Office of Management and Budget to implement a pilot program to streamline and consolidate certain statutory financial management and performance reports into a single, annual accountability report. One piece of legislation that has had influence in enhancing accountability in government agencies is The Government and Performance and Results Act of 1993. GPRA (or the "Results Act") is the primary legislative framework through which agenc ies are required to set strategic goals, measure performance, and report on the degree to which goals are met. Basically it requires government agencies to develop performance plans that outline the link between strategic goals and day-to-day operations. ROI is not the first private sector practice to be applied to public sector organizations. Total quality management (TQM), zero-based budgeting, and the balanced scorecard all had their initial beginning in the private sector and to some extent have been applied in government. While the fundamental use of ROI comes from accounting and finance (earnings divided by investment), the process of cost-benefit analysis is grounded in welfare economics and public finance. Both account for the financial benefits of a program, project, or initiative compared to the costs. The difference in the two equations is that cost-benefit analysis results in a ratio comparing monetary benefits to the program costs (BCR); ROI results in a percentage that presents the net monetary benefits (earnings) compared to the costs (investment). For many years there has been a great divide between traditional program evaluation and evaluation coming from business. Program evaluators have long been concerned with the correctness of use of methodologies, expending whatever time necessary to ensure purity of research.

Educational years Essay

School’s Reading Goal: * All students improve a grade level or more on Individual Reading Inventories Professional Development (PD) Focus: *All strategies presented in PD are geared towards reaching this goal. Individual Teacher Approaches: *The third grade teachers have used second grade test scores to identify that their students are weak in the area of comprehension Dawn has presented a strategy called Question Answer Relationships to help improve comprehension in students. The strategy helps students to learn to identify what kind of question is being asked to assist them in strategically finding the answer. Angie Heppner is a first year teacher who participates in the mandatory district teacher induction program. The induction program includes meeting with her mentor teacher, who is released from the classroom full time. The mentor teacher and Angie use data collected from classroom observation to set goals to work on in the classroom. The Participants Literacy Coach Dawn Benke works with 2nd and 3rd grade teachers as a literacy coach at a K-6 Teacher #1 Lillian Kurz has 31 students in her class, with five of her students falling far below in reading as identified through test data, 10 students approaching, 11 students meeting and four students exceeding. My comments: I totally understand the reasoning for Lilian not being offered the coach’s position. Based on her class data, it is evident that she is an effective teacher, and is very much valued in her grade level. She is working with a rather large class, which is difficult to consistently provide meaningful instructional activities as she would like to (particularly if she is dealing with behavioral issues). Teacher #2 Duane Keller has 29 students, with seven of his students falling far below in reading, seven approaching, 14 students meeting, and one student exceeding. My comments: I think the Duane seems to know what he is doing, based on the reading distribution data for his class. In addition, if it is not already being done, I think that a reading intervention time should be included in the daily schedule. The interventionist should be Duane, as those are his students and he would be better able to keep up with their progress and make connections with other grade level work being done in the classroom. Teacher #3 Jesse Vree’s class consists of 20 her students. She has three students who are falling far below, three students who are approaching, 19 students who are meeting and five students who are exceeding. My comments: WWOW! Jesse’s students are doing great! Based on her data, I think that Dawn should encourage her to share what works for her. Those three students, who are falling below, may have issues that need to be addressed by someone other than the classroom teacher. In some cases learning disabilities become clearing apparent as instruction intensifies. Teacher #4 Angie Heppner has 28 students; six of whom are falling far below, 10 who are approaching, 10 who are meeting, and two are exceeding. My comments: Angie is one lucky first-year teacher. It is great that she has a full-time mentor teacher. I know that she will amass a great deal of knowledge and avoid many failures. Collaboration with someone who has taught for many years is a windfall. DAWN’S CURRENT PLAN OF ACTION Weekly professional development by grade level one day in the week during PD time 1. Presents a piece of the literacy strategy they are working with. My comments: Dawn’s response to intervention is certainly on the right track, and will definitely assist her teachers in making some progress. Modeling the lesson will definitely assist her teachers in instruction. In my personal experience, I have found that the true effectiveness of a lesson is most accurately note when it is performed for the students in their own learning setting, by the coach, with the teacher as an â€Å"involved onlooker† In this way the teacher can take notes on how the coach interacts with the students in regards to class-work as well as classroom management. It gives the teacher the opportunity to observe and reflect while teaching is going on. Thus after teaching the lesson, both the coach and the teacher can discuss and reflect on whether or not the students had fully understood what had been taught. 2. Models a lesson using the strategy My comments: Yes! Yes! Yes! I totally agree. However that’s not where it stops. In order to get those students to improve one grade level or more, lots more need to be done. That’s where differentiated instruction comes into play. Dawn needs to make her teachers aware that their Struggling students are indeed at risk or failure, for possibly the lack fundamental skills necessary s to work or read on their grade level. She should encourage her teachers to use any diagnostic reading data that they have available or otherwise perform their own. Although time-consuming, conducting a QR1 (qualitative reading inventory), saves a lot of headache- â€Å"when little Johnny just doesn’t seem to get it†- a QRI will let you know on exactly which reading level he/she is: struggling, instructional or independent. The findings of this type of assessment supports instruction and provides concrete data that teachers could share with the literacy coach, to support the need for proposed intervention various areas, such as phonics instruction, vocabulary and comprehension and adapting curriculum. A teacher knows his/her students and is the best advocate. Ultimately success is accomplished through collaborative efforts of the literacy coach, the classroom teachers and definitely the students. Literacy coaches don’t know it all, and neither do teachers. However, the data provided in the case study is indicative of a strong team, supportive of each other, despite their previous varied teaching assignments. Effective communication is fundamental in planning for effective reading instruction. Knowledge of each student’s instructional and independent levels is beneficial in planning center activities and teacher directed instruction i.e. small groups. 3. Leads a discussion amongst the teachers about the strategy and how it applies to their own classrooms My comments: I like the fact that Dawn elicits teacher response, as to whether or not the modeled strategy would work in their classroom. She is giving them the opportunity to make adjustments and possible adaptations to the instructional delivery. In this forum the can be immediate feedback for clear expectations on both the literacy coach’s par and the teachers’ part. Dawn shows awareness of the diverse learning styles that are contained within a classroom. Here she identifies challenges and allows opportunity to address them. 4. Offers time for teachers to plan to use the strategy in their classroom. Requires teachers to implement the strategy in the upcoming week Bring student work samples to the next session, where they evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy. My comments Dawn makes her teachers accountable, not only for theirs students learning gains, but their own as well. When her teachers can effectively deliver lessons, it will certainly reflect in the reading performance of their students. Through their collaborative efforts dawn and her third grade team are well on their way to achieving their school goal. My Activity/Skills Recommendation Developing a Love for Reading As literacy coach Dawn can provide her teachers with a compile list of reading approaches that they may use to promote reading interest in their classroom, through interaction and involvement with text, thus improve overall reading performance. Instructional procedures will be intensive and include: (i)Purposeful explicit & implicit teaching of concepts (ii)Teacher- student interaction that targets understanding of various text structures-cause & effect, chronological order, (iii)Use differentiated instruction – student will participate in independent as well as teacher-led activities (iv)Student selection of leveled text for home reading. (v)Providing student with clear meaningful explanations and expectations of all tasks Targeting Comprehension Sequence activities will provide â€Å"At Risk† students with opportunity to practice and strengthen their ability to recall specific events as well as retelling text in a more cohesive manner. Vocabulary instruction will focus on words selected from the word lists and selected instructional text to provide instruction in the areas of synonyms, antonyms, affixes, words in c.

Literature and Language - 10588 Words

Chapter 9 Language and Literature There is a very close relationship between language and literature. The part of linguistics that studies the language of literature is termed LITERARY STYLISTICS. It focuses on the study of linguistic features related to literary style. 9.1 Theoretical background Our pursuit of style, the most elusive and fascinating phenomenon, has been enhanced by the constant studies of generations of scholars, â€Å"Style†, the phenomenon, has been recognized since the days of ancient rhetoric; â€Å"stylistic†, the adjective, has been with us since 1860; â€Å"stylistics†, the field, is perhaps the creation of bibliographers. (Dolores Burton, 1990) Helmut Hatzfeld was the first biographer of stylistics and†¦show more content†¦In this section, we shall briefly discuss the grammatical and semantic aspects. 9.2.1 Foregrounding and grammatical form Consider the following examples, both of which describe inner city decay in the U.S. The first is from the Observer (29 November 1995) : ex.9-1 The 1960 dream of high rise living soon turned into a nightmare. In this sentence, there is nothing grammatically unusual or â€Å"deviant† in the way the words of the sentence are put together. However, in the following verse from a poem, the grammatical structure seems to be much more challenging, and makes more demands on our interpretative processing of these lines: ex.9-2 Four storeys have no windows left to smash But in the fifth a chipped sill buttresses Mother and daughter the last mistresses Of that black block condemmed to stand, not crash. The sentence in line 2 of this verse that starts with But in the fifth is unusual in that the predicate of the sentence is made up of a sequence of embedded elements, as we can see if we write them out in a full form: â€Å"A chipped sill buttres ses mother and daughter who are the last mistresses of that black block which is condemned to stand, not crash.† Furthermore, the main verb in this sentence is buttress. This word can be either a noun or a verb, but we would argue that it is more likely to occur as a noun in less literary contexes. In literary texts,Show MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Language In Literature726 Words   |  3 PagesLanguage relativity suggests that the structure of a language affects its speakers’ experience and understanding of the world. In general terms, most people agree with the notion that language does shape thought and mental activity in some degree. And as is well-known, translations have never disappear in the history of literature. 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